It was an understandable sentiment, and not just because Homme and company were playing for a full house of ecstatic fans. (I saw one dude swaying his arms up and down, like he was worshipping actual queens...or really, kings.)

In 2010, Homme said he briefly died during an operation on his leg. When he was released from the hospital, he was bedridden for three months.

The experience influenced Queens' latest album "...Like Clockwork," released last year, songs from which took up much of Wednesday's hour-and-45-minute running time.

"Who am I supposed to be? Not exactly sure anymore," Homme sang during his lone moment behind the piano for "Clockwork" track "The Vampyre of Time and Memory," with Troy Van Leeuwen's eerie, sci-fi-style keyboard ambiance adding greater alienation to Homme's existential examination.

It's the same kind of cynicism — albeit sadder — as on one of its first hits, "No One Knows," from 12 years ago, with Homme singing about being force-fed difficult-to-swallow pills. ("Knows," by the way, still has plenty of kick live, with Jon Theodore — new drummer since last year — a blur of fury Wednesday over the guitarists' crunchy riffs).

But if Homme's sentiments remain unchanged, his ambitions are greater. Homme crooned with theatrical urgency, like a street preacher prophesizing the apocalypse, on lead "Clockwork" single "My God Is the Sun," led by Van Leeuwen's dangerous, spaghetti-western riff on his double-neck guitar.

And "Smooth Sailing" might be the strangest Queens song to date — and that's saying something, given its catalog of eccentricities — coming off live Wednesday like Prince and Marilyn Manson's love child, with Homme aping falsetto one second, unleashing a howl the next.

So then, what is the meaning of life, from an artist who came close to losing his? Homme didn't specifically say — he didn't have much to say, you remember — but it could perhaps be interpreted in the music.

The answer is volume — lots of it. And in the thrill of adventurous rock. And in experiencing life without inhibitions. Here is a man who strongly considered giving up music, but instead showed up at the Riverside Wednesday, and he and his band played so hard, he confessed, with bemusement, of being deaf by the end of the night.

It's all downhill from here? Well, perhaps. But for close to two hours, Queens of the Stone Age, and its fans at the Riverside, lived life to its fullest.

With trance-like movements and a shawl wrapped around her shoulder, and leading a band through a sludgy, intriguing opening set, Chelsea Wolfe came off like an actual queen of the stone age Wednesday. She provided a good warm up for the soon-to-be-maxed-out speaker system as much as she did for the crowd.

The Takeaways

■Perhaps because of his knee troubles, Homme left the rock-star posturing to Van Leeuwen and bassist Michael Shuman. Van Leeuwen at one point kicked his leg back like a horse, in between knee bends and foot pivots, while Shuman shook his head violently during bass solos, his hair flopping about, like he was trying to shake a squirrel off his head.

■Standout banter: "Who'd you two have to (expletive) to get those seats, man? Oh right, us. Thank you by the way. It was totally worth it in every way." — Homme to a couple of fans with premium seats.

The Setlist

1. "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire"

2. "No One Knows"

3. "My God Is the Sun"

4. "Burn the Witch"

5. "I'm Designer"

6. "Smooth Sailing"

7. "...Like Clockwork"

8. "In the Fade"

9. "If I Had a Tail"

10. "Little Sister"

11. "I Appear Missing"

12. "Make It Wit Chu"

13. "I Sat by the Ocean"

14. "Sick, Sick, Sick"

15. "Better Living Through Chemistry"

16. "Go with the Flow"

Encore:

17. "The Vampyre of Time and Memory"

18. "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"

19. "Song for the Dead"

About Piet Levy

Piet Levy covers music for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and TapMilwaukee.com. For more music updates, you can also follow him on Facebook and Instagram​.